The owners of filling stations yesterday withdrew their indefinite strike that was scheduled to start from today.
They came up with the decision following the government’s assurance of considering their demands that include reduction of lease fees for land, an increase in sales commission and scrapping a move to increase CNG price.
The announcement came after a meeting among Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid and the owners of compressed natural gas (CNG) and other filling stations.
The two ministries formed separate committees to scrutinise the demands, said Obaidul Quader after the meeting held at the headquarters of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) in the capital.
The committees comprised of government officials and representatives of the owners associations have been asked to submit reports in two months. The government would take further steps on the basis of the reports, Quader said.
After this statement of the minister, Bangladesh CNG Filling Station and Conversion Workshop Owners Association president Madud Khan and Bangladesh Petrol Pump O Tank Lorry Malik Sramik Oikya Parishad convener Nazmul Hoque separately announced withdrawal of their strikes.
Both the organisations at separate press conferences had earlier announced to enforce the indefinite strike from 6:00am today.
A major and common demand of both the organisations was reduction of the lease fees of land that connects the filling stations with roads.
According to the Land Management Policy, 2015, of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), the filling stations have to lease the land and the fees are set on the basis of the area of land.
But the RHD in October last year “abnormally” increased the fees and imposed other charges, they claimed.
For example, a filling station previously had to pay around Tk 53,000 annually for using 24 decimals of RHD land. But the same station now has to pay around Tk 11.28 lakh annually, claimed the station owners.
Another demand of the CNG refuelling station owners is to scrap the government’s move to increase the CNG price. The demand came as the gas distributor companies have recently proposed that the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) increase CNG price by around 83 percent.
The current price of CNG is Tk 35 per cubic metre.
Another major demand of the filling station owners is to increase their sales commission. Currently, pump owners get 4.03 percent commission for selling octane and petrol and 2.7 percent for diesel.
But the pump owners demand that the commission be increased up to 7 percent for octane and petrol and 5 percent for diesel.
